ease of living index

Global credit and investment rating agencies periodically release veiled threat of downgrades on credit rating and investment climate, to perennially keep the situation under check, for investors. Ease of doing business refers to the ease with which potential businesses are able to get through various approvals, papers processed, predictability and consistency of tax laws, quality and delivery efficacy of physical, social and institutional infrastructural services critical to businesses.

Being preoccupied with ease of doing business what is lost sight of is the Ease of Living, the superset of ease of doing business, which subsumes ease of doing business. Ease of living is the perception based on day to day experience of average citizens; the travails one undergoes while fulfilling needs of a normal day to day life. These include access to various basic civic / municipal services, safety, grievance redressal, predictability, reliability of institutional support system (police, judiciary, urban local bodies, neighbourhood experience).

Lack of attention to Ease of Living (even the phrase has not been coined yet?) could be due to global institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and the UN not yet started talking about it (not in their dictionary); preoccupied with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Human Development Index (HDI), Air Quality Index and so on, which has to fade or go out of fashion, for new terms like ELI to surface.